The Tale Of The Ensorceled Prince

whilom formerly.

threescore Thrice twenty; sixty.

KNOW then, O my lord, that whilom my sire was King of this city,
and his name was Mahmud, entitled Lord of the Black Islands, and
owner of what are now these four mountains. He ruled threescore and
ten years, after which he went to the mercy of the Lord and I
reigned as Sultan in his stead. I took to wife my cousin, the
daughter of my paternal uncle, and she loved me with such abounding
love that whenever I was absent she ate not and she drank not until
she saw me again. She cohabited with me for five years till a
certain day when she went forth to the hammam bath, and I bade the
cook hasten to get ready all requisites for our supper. And I
entered this palace and lay down on the bed where I was wont to
sleep and bade two damsels to fan my face, one sitting by my head
and the other at my feet.

But I was troubled and made restless by my wife's absence and
could not sleep, for although my eyes were closed, my mind and
thoughts were wide-awake. Presently I heard the slave girl at my
head say to her at my feet: “O Mas'udah, how miserable is our
master and how wasted in his youth, and oh! the pity of his being
so betrayed by our mistress, the accursed whore!” The other
replied: “Yes indeed. Allah curse all faithless women and
adulterous! But the like of our master, with his fair gifts,
deserveth something better than this harlot who lieth abroad every
night.” Then quoth she who sat by my head, “Is our lord dumb or fit
only for bubbling that he questioneth her not!” and quoth the
other: “Fie on thee! Doth our lord know her ways, or doth she allow
him his choice? Nay, more, doth she not drug every night the cup
she giveth him to drink before sleeptime, and put bhang into it? So
he sleepeth and wotteth not whither she goeth, nor what she doeth,
but we know that after giving him the drugged wine, she donneth her
richest raiment and perfumeth herself and then she fareth out from
him to be away till break of day. Then she cometh to him and
burneth a pastille under his nose and he awaketh from his
death-like sleep.” When I heard the slave girls' words, the light
became black before my sight and I thought night would never
fall.

quaffing To drink with relish; to drink copiously of; to swallow in large draughts.

wont habit.

Presently the daughter of my uncle came from the baths, and they
set the table for us and we ate and sat together a fair half-hour
quaffing our wine, as was ever our wont. Then she called for the
particular wine I used to drink before sleeping and reached me the
cup, but, seeming to drink it according to my wont, I poured the
contents into my bosom and, lying down, let her hear that I was
asleep. Then, behold, she cried: “Sleep out the night, and never
wake again! By Allah, I loathe thee and I loathe thy whole body,
and my soul turneth in disgust from cohabiting with thee, and I see
not the moment when Allah shall snatch away thy life!” Then she
rose and donned her fairest dress and perfumed her person and slung
my sword over her shoulder, and opening the gates of the palace,
went her ill way.

outlying relatively far from a center or middle.

I rose and followed her as she left the palace and she threaded
the streets until she came to the city gate, where she spoke words
I understood not and the padlocks dropped of themselves as if
broken and the gate leaves opened. She went forth (and I after her
without her noticing aught) till she came at last to the outlying
mounds and a reed fence built about a round-roofed hut of mud
bricks. As she entered the door, I climbed upon the roof, which
commanded a view of the interior, And lo! my fair cousin had gone
in to a hideous Negro slave with his upper lip like the cover of a
pot and his lower like an open pot, lips which might sweep up sand
from the gravel floor of the cot. He was to boot a leper and a
paralytic, lying upon a strew of sugar-cane trash and wrapped in an
old blanket and the foulest rags and tatters.

She kissed the earth before him, and he raised his head so as to
see her and said: “Woe to thee! What call hadst thou to stay away
all this time? Here have been with me sundry of the black brethren,
who drank their wine and each had his young lady, and I was not
content to drink because of thine absence.” Then she: “O my lord,
my heart's love and coolth of my eyes, knowest thou not that I am
married to my cousin, whose very look I loathe, and hate myself
when in his company? And did not I fear for thy sake, I would not
let a single sun arise before making his city a ruined heap wherein
raven should croak and howlet hoot, and jackal and wolf harbor and
loot- nay, I had removed its very stones to the back side of Mount
Kaf.” Rejoined the slave: “Thou liest, damn thee! Now I swear an
oath by the valor and honor of blackamoor men (and deem not our
manliness to be the poor manliness of white men), from today forth
if thou stay away till this hour, I will not keep company with thee
nor will I glue my body with thy body. Dost play fast and loose
with us, thou cracked pot, that we may satisfy thy dirty lusts, O
vilest of the vile whites?”

wheedling To entice by soft words; to cajole; to flatter; to coax.

slop wet feed (especially for pigs) consisting of mostly kitchen waste mixed with water or skimmed or sour milk.

When I heard his words, and saw with my own eyes what passed
between these two wretches, the world waxed dark before my face and
my soul knew not in what place it was. But my wife humbly stood up
weeping before and wheedling the slave, and saying: “O my beloved,
and very fruit of my heart, there is none left to cheer me but thy
dear self, and, if thou cast me off, who shall take me in, O my
beloved, O light of my eyes?” And she ceased not weeping and
abasing herself to him until he deigned be reconciled with her.
Then was she right glad and stood up and doffed her clothes, even
to her petticoat trousers, and said, “O my master, what hast thou
here for thy handmaiden to eat?” “Uncover the basin,” he grumbled,
“and thou shalt find at the bottom the broiled bones of some rats
we dined on. Pick at them, and then go to that slop pot, where thou
shalt find some leavings of beer which thou mayest drink.” So she
ate and drank and washed her hands, and went and lay down by the
side of the slave upon the cane trash and crept in with him under
his foul coverlet and his rags and tatters.

When I saw my wife, my cousin, the daughter of my uncle, do this
deed, I clean lost my wits, and climbing down from the roof, I
entered and took the sword which she had with her and drew it,
determined to cut down the twain. I first struck at the slave's
neck and thought that the death decree had fallen on him, for he
groaned a loud hissing groan, but I had cut only the skin and flesh
of the gullet and the two arteries! It awoke the daughter of my
uncle, so I sheathed the sword and fared forth for the city, and
entering the palace, lay upon my bed and slept till morning, when
my wife aroused me and I saw that she had cut off her hair and had
donned mourning garments. Quoth she: “O son of my uncle, blame me
not for what I do. It hath just reached me that my mother is dead
and my father hath been killed in holy war, and of my brothers one
hath lost his life by a snake sting and the other by falling down
some precipice, and I can and should do naught save weep and
lament.”

list To desire or choose; to please; suit. “Do as thou list” means do what you like.

cupola A roof having a rounded form, hemispherical or nearly so; also, a ceiling having the same form. When on a large scale it is usually called dome. Cupola

cenotaph A empty tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person who is buried elsewhere.

santon A Turkish saint; a kind of dervish, regarded by the people as a saint: also, a hermit.

sepulcher a chamber that is used as a grave.

year This is a real, dedicated love. In modern society, she could have divorced his husband and things will be better.

When I heard her words I refrained from all reproach and said
only: “Do as thou list. I certainly will not thwart thee.” She
continued sorrowing, weeping and wailing one whole year from the
beginning of its circle to the end, and when it was finished she
said to me: “I wish to build me in thy palace a tomb with a cupola,
which I will set apart for my mourning and will name the House of
Lamentations.” Quoth I again: “Do as thou list!” Then she builded
for herself a cenotaph wherein to mourn, and set on its center a
dome under which showed a tomb like a santon's sepulcher. Thither
she carried the slave and lodged him, but he was exceeding weak by
reason of his wound, and unable to do her love service. He could
only drink wine, and from the day of his hurt he spake not a word,
yet he lived on because his appointed hour was not come. Every day,
morning and evening, my wife went to him and wept and wailed over
him and gave him wine and strong soups, and left not off doing
after this manner a second year. And I bore with her patiently and
paid no heed to her.

One day, however, I went in to her unawares, and I found her
weeping and beating her face and crying: “Why art thou absent from
my sight, O my heart's delight? Speak to me, O my life, talk with
me, O my love.” When she had ended for a time her words and her
weeping I said to her, “O my cousin, let this thy mourning suffice,
for in pouring forth tears there is little profit!” “Thwart me
not,” answered she, “in aught I do, or I will lay violent hands on
myself!” So I held my peace and left her to go her own way, and she
ceased not to cry and keen and indulge her affliction for yet
another year. At the end of the third year I waxed aweary of this
longsome mourning, and one day I happened to enter the cenotaph
when vexed and angry with some matter which had thwarted me, and
suddenly I heard her say: “O my lord, I never hear thee vouchsafe a
single word to me! Why dost thou not answer me, O my master?” and
she began reciting:

“O thou tomb! O thou tomb! Be his beauty set in shade?
Hast thou darkened that countenance all-sheeny as the noon?
O thou tomb! Neither earth nor yet Heaven art to me,
Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined my sun and
moon?”

When I heard such verses as these rage was heaped upon my rage,
I cried out: “Wellaway! How long is this sorrow to last?” and I
began repeating:

“O thou tomb! O thou tomb! Be his horrors set in blight?
Hast thou darkened his countenance that sickeneth the soul?
O thou tomb! Neither cesspool nor pigskin art to me,
Then how cometh it in thee are conjoined soil and coal?”

When she heard my words she sprang to her feet crying: “Fie upon
thee, thou cur! All this is of thy doings. Thou hast wounded my
heart's darling and thereby worked me sore woe, and thou hast
wasted his youth so that these three years he hath lain abed more
dead than alive!” In my wrath I cried: “O thou foulest of harlots
and filthiest of whores ever futtered by Negro slaves who are hired
to have at thee! Yes, indeed it was I who did this good deed.” And
snatching up my sword, I drew it and made at her to cut her down.
But she laughed my words and mine intent to scorn, crying: “To
heel, hound that thou art! Alas for the past which shall no more
come to pass, nor shall anyone avail the dead to raise. Allah hath
indeed now given into my hand him who did to me this thing, a deed
that hath burned my heart with a fire which died not a flame which
might not be quenched!”

Nazarene One of a sect of Judaizing Christians in the first and second centuries, who observed the laws of Moses, and held to certain heresies. Nazarene (sect)

Magian One of the Magi, or priests of the Zoroastrian religion in Persia; an adherent of the Zoroastrian religion. Magi

stripes a stroke or blow as with a whip.

haircloth cloth woven from horsehair or camelhair; used for upholstery or stiffening in garments. haircloth

Then she stood up, and pronouncing some words to me
unintelligible, she said, “By virtue of my egromancy become thou
half stone and half man!” Whereupon I became what thou seest,
unable to rise or to sit, and neither dead nor alive. Moreover, she
ensorceled the city with all its streets and garths, and she turned
by her gramarye the four islands into four mountains around the
tarn whereof thou questionest me. And the citizens, who were of
four different faiths, Moslem, Nazarene, Jew, and Magian, she
transformed by her enchantments into fishes. The Moslems are the
white, the Magians red, the Christians blue, and the Jews yellow.
And every day she tortureth me and scourgeth me with a hundred
stripes, each of which draweth floods of blood and cutteth the skin
of my shoulders to strips. And lastly she clotheth my upper half
with a haircloth and then throweth over them these robes. Hereupon
the young man again shed tears and began reciting:

“In patience, O my God, I endure my lot and fate,
I will bear at will of Thee whatsoever be my state.
They oppress me, they torture me, they make my life a woe,
Yet haply Heaven's happiness shall compensate my strait.
Yea, straitened is my life by the bane and hate o' foes,
But Mustafa and Murtaza shall ope me Heaven's gate.”

mausoleum a large burial chamber, usually above ground.

After this the Sultan turned toward the young Prince and said:
“O youth, thou hast removed one grief only to add another grief.
But now, O my friend, where is she, and where is the mausoleum
wherein lieth the wounded slave?” “The slave lieth under yon dome,”
quoth the young man, “and she sitteth in the chamber fronting
yonder door. And every day at sunrise she cometh forth, and first
strippeth me, and whippeth me with a hundred strokes of the
leathern scourge, and I weep and shriek, but there is no power of
motion in my lower limbs to keep her off me. After ending her
tormenting me she visiteth the slave, bringing him wine and boiled
meats. And tomorrow at an early hour she will be here.” Quoth the
King: “By Allah, O youth, I will assuredly do thee a good deed
which the world shall not willingly let die, and an act of
derring-do which shall be chronicled long after I am dead and gone
by.”

ware to be aware of (archaic).

unguents semisolid preparation (usually containing a medicine) applied externally as a remedy or for soothing an irritation.

doated dote.

Then the King sat him by the side of the young Prince and talked
till nightfall, when he lay down and slept. But as soon as the
false dawn showed, he arose and, doffing his outer garments, bared
his blade and hastened to the place wherein lay the slave. Then was
he ware of lighted candles and lamps, and the perfume of incenses
and unguents, and directed by these, he made for the slave and
struck him one stroke, killing him on the spot. After which he
lifted him on his back and threw him into a well that was in the
palace. Presently he returned and, donning the slave's gear, lay
down at length within the mausoleum with the drawn sword laid close
to and along his side. After an hour or so the accursed witch came,
and first going to her husband, she stripped off his clothes and,
taking a whip, flogged him cruelly while he cried out: “Ah! Enough
for me the case I am in! Take pity on me, O my cousin!” But she
replied, “Didst thou take pity on me and spare the life of my
truelove on whom I doated?”

Then she drew the cilice over his raw and bleeding skin and
threw the robe upon all and went down to the slave with a goblet of
wine and a bowl of meat broth in her hands. She entered under the
dome weeping and wailing, “Wellaway!” and crying: “O my lord! Speak
a word to me! O my master! Talk awhile with me!” and began to
recite these couplets:

Then she wept again and said: “O my lord! Speak to me, talk with me!” The King lowered his voice and, twisting his tongue, spoke after the fashion of the blackamoors and said “'Lack, 'lack! There be no Majesty and there be no Might save in Allauh, the Gloriose, the Great!”

cuss A odd or perverse person or creature; utter obscenities or profanities.

hubby note the use of the word “hubby”. So it is used in 1800s, not a modern thing.

leave permission.

Now when she heard these words she shouted for joy, and fell to
the ground fainting, and when her senses returned she asked, “O my
lord, can it be true that thou hast power of speech?” And the King,
making his voice small and faint, answered: “O my cuss! Dost thou
deserve that I talk to thee and speak with thee?” “Why and
wherefore?” rejoined she, and he replied: “The why is that all the
livelong day thou tormentest thy hubby, and he keeps calling on
'eaven for aid until sleep is strange to me even from evenin' till
mawnin', and he prays and damns, cussing us two, me and thee,
causing me disquiet and much bother. Were this not so, I should
long ago have got my health, and it is this which prevents my
answering thee.” Quoth she, “With thy leave I will release him from
what spell is on him,” and quoth the King, “Release him, and let's
have some rest!” She cried, “To hear is to obey,” and, going from
the cenotaph to the palace, she took a metal bowl and filled it
with water and spake over it certain words which made the contents
bubble and boil as a caldron seetheth over the fire. With this she
sprinkled her husband saying, “By virtue of the dread words I have
spoken, if thou becamest thus by my spells, come forth out of that
form into thine own former form.”

And lo and behold! the young man shook and trembled, then he
rose to his feet and, rejoicing at his deliverance, cried aloud, “I
testify that there is no god but the God, and in very truth
Mohammed is His Apostle, whom Allah bless and keep!” Then she said
to him, “Go forth and return not hither, for if thou do I will
surely slay thee,” screaming these words in his face. So he went
from between her hands, and she returned to the dome and, going
down to the sepulcher, she said, “O my lord, come forth to me that
I may look upon thee and thy goodliness!” The King replied in faint
low words: “What thing hast thou done? Thou hast rid me of the
branch, but not of the root.” She asked: “O my darling! O my
Negroling! What is the root?” And he answered: “Fie on thee, O my
cuss! The people of this city and of the four islands every night
when it's half-passed lift their heads from the tank in which thou
hast turned them to fishes and cry to Heaven and call down its
anger on me and thee, and this is the reason why my body's balked
from health. Go at once and set them free, then come to me and take
my hand, and raise me up, for a little strength is already back in
me.”

When she heard the King's words (and she still supposed him to
be the slave) she cried joyously: “O my master, on my head and on
my eyes be thy command. Bismillah!” So she sprang to her feet and,
full of joy and gladness, ran down to the tarn and took a little of
its water in the palm of her hand and spake over it words not to be
understood, and the fishes lifted their heads and stood up on the
instant like men, the spell on the people of the city having been
removed. What was the lake again became a crowded capital. The
bazaars were thronged with folk who bought and sold, each citizen
was occupied with his own calling, and the four hills became
islands as they were whilom.

Then the young woman, that wicked sorceress, returned to the
King and (still thinking he was the Negro) said to him: “O my love!
Stretch forth thy honored hand that I may assist thee to rise.”
“Nearer to me,” quoth the King in a faint and feigned tone. She
came close as to embrace him, when he took up the sword lying hid
by his side and smote her across the breast, so that the point
showed gleaming behind her back. Then he smote her a second time
and cut her in twain and cast her to the ground in two halves.
After which he fared forth and found the young man, now freed from
the spell, awaiting him and gave him joy of his happy release while
the Prince kissed his hand with abundant thanks.

girt To prepare; to make ready; to equip; as, to gird one's self for a contest.

issue offspring.

Quoth the King, “Wilt thou abide in this city, or go with me to
my capital?” Quoth the youth, “O King of the Age, wettest thou not
what journey is between thee and thy city?” “Two days and a half,”
answered he, whereupon said the other: “An thou be sleeping, O
King, awake! Between thee and thy city is a year's march for a
well-girt walker, and thou haddest not come hither in two days and
a half save that the city was under enchantment. And I, O King,
will never part from thee- no, not even for the twinkling of an
eye.” The King rejoiced at his words and said: “Thanks be to Allah,
Who hath bestowed thee upon me! From this hour thou art my son and
my only son, for that in all my life I have never been blessed with
issue.” Thereupon they embraced and joyed with exceeding great joy.
And, reaching the palace, the Prince who had been spellbound
informed his lords and his grandees that he was about to visit the
Holy Places as a pilgrim, and bade them get ready all things
necessary for the occasion.

The preparations lasted ten days, after which he set out with
the Sultan, whose heart burned in yearning for his city, whence he
had been absent a whole twelvemonth. They journeyed with an escort
of Mamelukes carrying all manners of precious gifts and rarities,
nor stinted they wayfaring day and night for a full year until they
approached the Sultan's capital, and sent on messengers to announce
their coming. Then the Wazir and the whole army came out to meet
him in joy and gladness, for they had given up all hope of ever
seeing their King, and the troops kissed the ground before him and
wished him joy of his safety. He entered and took seat upon his
throne and the Minister came before him and, when acquainted with
all that had befallen the young Prince, he congratulated him on his
narrow escape.

When order was restored throughout the land, the King gave
largess to many of his people, and said to the Wazir, “Hither the
fisherman who brought us the fishes!” So he sent for the man who
had been the first cause of the city and the citizens being
delivered from enchantment, and when he came into the presence, the
Sultan bestowed upon him a dress of honor, and questioned him of
his condition and whether he had children. The fisherman gave him
to know that he had two daughters and a son, so the King sent for
them and, taking one dauhter to wife, gave the other to the young
Prince and made the son his head treasurer. Furthermore, he
invested his Wazir with the Sultanate of the City in the Black
Islands whilom belonging to the young Prince, and dispatched with
him the escort of fifty armed slaves, together with dresses of
honor for all the emirs and grandees. The Wazir kissed hands and
fared forth on his way, while the Sultan and the Prince abode at
home in all the solace and the delight of life, and the fisherman
became the richest man of his age, and his daughters wived with the
Kings until death came to them.